BCExplorer_OS - B&C Explorer

Description

An open source block explorer for the B&C Exchange network. For more information about the B&C Exchange network visit http://bcexchange.org

A block explorer is an application that sorts and displays information regarding a blockchain(s). So things like

• block data
• transaction data
• address data
• motion and custodian data.
• network status
• network statistics

Getting Started

Before we get into setup and installation, let's layout the requirements and tools/frameworks used in this project.

• B&C Exchange Client
• Python (2.7)
• NPM (2.x)
• NodeJS (4.x)
• PostgreSQL (>=9.4)
• ExpressJS (>=4.x)
• AngularJS (>=1.4.3)
• Sass
• Grunt

Python Dependencies

• Bitstring
• python-bitcoinrpc
  • Install with pip for stable version pip install git+https://github.com/jgarzik/python-bitcoinrpc.git
• simplejson
• psycopg2
  • If your installing on Linux, you have to install it from source

Setup

Before you start with the setup, make sure you have installed all the required tools (B&C Exchange Client, Python, NPM, NodeJS, PostgreSQL, Sass, Grunt) and the python dependencies mentioned above.

Let's start by cloning and compiling this repo.

git clone https://github.com/JetJet13/BCExplorer_OS.git
cd ./BCExplorer_OS
# Depending on your OS
npm install # Windows Users
sudo npm install # Linux Users

PostgreSQL Setup

After you have installed PostgreSQL (>=9.4) the first thing we are going to do is create a database.

Windows Users

Open Windows Powershell and navigate to your PostgreSQL bin folder to start up psql.exe

> cd "C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\{version}\bin"`
> ./psql 

When it starts up, you should be connected with a user with superadmin privileges postgres
Now, you need to create a database called bcexchange

CREATE DATABASE bcexchange; 

Once complete, you can either exit \q or create a user with full privileges to bcexchange

To create a user will full privileges to the bcexchange database,

CREATE USER ENTER_USERNAME WITH PASSWORD 'ENTER_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE "bcexchange" to ENTER_USERNAME;
\q # to exit

If you want to connect to the database through psql with the new user, you can use

> ./psql -d bcexchange -U ENTER_USERNAME

Linux Users

When you install PostgreSQL on Linux, it creates a user called postgres, so let's use the newly created user to access psql.

$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql

Now, you need to create a database called bcexchange

CREATE DATABASE bcexchange; 

Once complete, you can either exit \q or create a user with full privileges to bcexchange

To create a user will full privileges to the bcexchange database,

CREATE USER ENTER_USERNAME WITH PASSWORD 'ENTER_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE "bcexchange" to ENTER_USERNAME;
\q # to exit

If you want to connect to the database through psql with the new user, you can use

$ ./psql -d bcexchange -U ENTER_USERNAME

B&C Exchange Client Setup

Make sure to download, unzip and install (if your on windows) the B&C Exchange Client before starting this setup.
We need to create a configuration file for the client, so that we can connect to the client and make rpc requests.

Windows Users

Navigate to C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\BCExchange. Note that AppData may be hidden.
Create and save a text file bcexchange.conf. If you get a prompt, click yes.
Open the empty file with Notepad and paste in the following

rpcport=2240
rpcuser=<ENTER_USERNAME>
rpcpassword=<ENTER_PASSWORD>
server=1

Set rpcuser and rpcpassword to whatever you like and then save and exit.

Now, we want to start up the client, so navigate to where you downloaded and unzipped the folder and double-click either bcexchange.exe or bcexchanged.exe

Linux Users

# root user
$ cd /root/.bcexchange
# non-root user
$ cd /home/{username}/.bcexchange/
# then
$ sudo pico bcexchange.conf

Paste in the following

rpcport=2240
rpcuser=<ENTER_USERNAME>
rpcpassword=<ENTER_PASSWORD>
server=1

Set rpcuser and rpcpassword to whatever you like and then save and exit.

Now, we want to start up the client,

$ cd /{client-folder-location}/bin/64
$ sudo ./bcexchanged --daemon
B&C Exchange server starting

If you get some kind of error, go back and check if your bcexchange.conf file is similar to what is above.

---

The client/daemon is now going to start syncing with the rest of the network. This will take a while so feel free to take a break at this point.

Important: I recommend waiting for the B&C Exchange Client to fully sync before continuing

Edit Source Files

For this part of the setup, we are going to edit some source files to match the settings you created earlier, specifically

1. pyScripts/BC_parserv02.py
2. pyScripts/BC_insert.py
3. pyScripts/BC_charts.py
4. pyScripts/PostgresSetup.py
5. bin/www
6. public/api/api_tools.js

Setting Up Credentials

====== Before we make any changes, make sure you know your RPC credentials,

• rpcuser
• rpcpassword

and your PostgreSQL user credentials,

• username
• password

In your favourite IDE, open the six files above and make the following changes.

FIND & REPLACE

• <user> => rpcuser
• <pass> => rpcpassword
• <username> => username
• <password> => password

Setting Up File Paths

====== Next open /pyScripts/BC_parserv02.py and /pyScripts/BC_insert.py and make the following changes

Windows Users

First you have to comment out or delete lines.

BC_insert.py 343, 344, 345

BC_parserv02.py 491, 492, 493

Then you have to uncomment lines

BC_insert.py 348, 349, 350 and replace home with whatever your username is on your PC

BC_parserv02.py 496, 497, 498

After you have done these two steps to both files, they should both look like this

# Linux Users
# blk01 = "/root/.bcexchange/blk0001.dat"
# blk02 = "/root/.bcexchange/blk0002.dat"
# blk = ""

#  Windows Users
blk01 = "C:/users/{username}/appdata/roaming/bcexchange/blk0001.dat"
blk02 = "C:/users/{username}/appdata/roaming/bcexchange/blk0002.dat"
blk = ""

Linux Users

The only thing you have to do to both files is make sure that lines

BC_insert.py 343, 344, 345

BC_parserv02.py 491, 492, 493

are pointing to the right folder, that is, if you are on root user, then you don't have to make any changes.
Otherwise, replace /root with /home/{username}

Database Schema

The next thing we have to do is run a python script that will create all the tables and triggers necessary for the explorer to work.
Make sure that the B&C Exchange Client is running before you start the script

Windows Users

> python /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/pyScripts/PostgresSetup.py

Linux Users

$ /usr/bin/python /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/pyScripts/PostgresSetup.py

Once complete, you are ready to start inserting data into the database

Inserting Data

To insert data into the database, make sure that you successfully completed the sections Database Schema and Edit Source Files
Make sure that the B&C Exchange Client is running before you start the script

Windows Users

> python /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/pyScripts/BC_insert.py

Linux Users

$ /usr/bin/python /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/pyScripts/BC_insert.py

Launching Explorer

Only launch the explorer if you have inserted data into the database. Otherwise you will get errors.

Windows Users

> cd /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS
> grunt server

Linux Users

$ cd /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS
$ sudo grunt server

Visit localhost:80 to view the application.

If you get an error:

DEPRECATION WARNING:
	Sass 3.5 will no longer support Ruby 1.9.3.
	Please upgrade to Ruby 2.0.0 or greater as soon as possible.

The explorer will still work fine, but if you want to fix it, visit this post

If there are any other errors in which you cannot fix, raise an issue in this repo and I'll try my best to help you.

Inserting All Data

In the Inserting Data section, the script BC_insert.py only inserted a small amount of data. You will need to insert the rest of the blocks into the database for a complete and up-to-date block explorer.

This is done by running BC_insert.py and making adjustments to line 358

fi.seek(100000,0)

This will only read the first 100,000 bytes of the blk0001.dat file. You will have to make adjustments to the values as you process/insert the blocks.

NOTE BC_insert.py makes RPC calls to the B&C Exchange Client, so it needs to be running while the script is running.

Once you have inserted all the blocks and transactions into the database, you can run the bash scripts

Linux Users Only

runparser.bash 
charts.bash

to continuously insert blocks and other data

$ sudo /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/runparser.bash
# AND
$ sudo /{folder-location}/BCExplorer_OS/charts.bash

I recommend using tmux when you do this.

Final Remarks

Setup requires you to work in the order in which the sections are layed out. Skipping over some sections will only give you problems.

If you plan on using this in production, public API's come built-in, so you will need to edit the file /public/html/apis.html
Specifically, you will have to find and replace all YOUR_DOMAIN snippets with the domain of your site.
ie) YOUR_DOMAIN/api/v1/block/3000 => https://bcblockexplorer.com/api/v1/block/3000

If you have any questions/issues or feedback, please do not hesitate to raise an issue in this repo, or leave a message in the chat room.

Best of Luck

Licensing

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Johny Georges

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.